Adsorption from Aqueous Solution Onto Natural and Acid Activated Bentonite

Dyes have long been used in dyeing, paper and pulp, textiles, plastics, leather, paint, cosmetics and food industries. Nowadays, more than 100,000 commercial dyes are available with a total production of 700,000 tones manufactured all over the world annually. About 10-15% of dyes are being disposed off as a waste into the environment after dyeing process. This poses certain hazards and environmental problems. The objective of this study is to investigate the adsorption behavior of Methylene Blue (MB) from aqueous solution onto natural and acid activated Jordanian bentonite. Both bentonites are firstly characterized using XRD, FTIR and SEM techniques. Then batch adsorption experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of initial MB concentration, contact time, pH and temperature. It was found that the percentage of dye removal was improved from 75.8% for natural bentonite to reach 99.6% for acid treated bentonite. The rate of MB removal followed the pseudo second order model with a high correlation factor. The Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models were applied to describe the equilibrium isotherms. The Langmuir isotherm model was found more representative. The results indicate that bentonite could be employed as a low cost adsorbent in wastewater treatment for the removal of colour and dyes.